Multimaster Sofa Insurance Harveys

[finally]

Hi

This is my first post so please be gentle if I do something wrong. I am also about to make another post about Ebay so help there would be appreciated (not much going right at the minute).

In March I purchased a sofa from Harveys buy now pay December, I also purchased accidental insurance for 5 years at a cost of £150.

On July 25th I rang to make a claim on it as my husband had scratched down the side when moving it. On 28 July I received a phone call for the technician to visit. On the day I got a phone call saying the van had broken down and the next available appointment was 14 August I agreed to this and took the day off work.

On 14 August when it got late in the day I rang and asked where he was and was told he had been and I was not in. I told the girl I had been in all day and no one had called after several more phone calls she said he had gone to the wrong house and he was on his way. He came and took the photos and said he would be in touch.

After two weeks of not hearing anything I rang again and was told the emails were lost, then another phone call that they had gone to the wrong address. Two weeks later I received a call saying the technician would be in touch.

After five days of not hearing anything I rang again and was told the technician was sending to head office for a colour pigment that was 29 September. After two more weeks I rang and was told the technician would have to come and take a swatch. After another week I rang again and was told someone would get back to me no one has yet rang back.

The phone calls have been to both head office and the local technician. I wrote on 23 October to both Harveys and Multimaster and today I got a letter from Multimaster saying they will look into it and get back to me within 28 days.

I just don't want anything else to do with them but don't know where I stand on paying in December. Can anyone help please.

[avdum]

Hi, I was just googling for Multimaster contact details and came across this thread. After reading it, I thought the situation looks exactly like mine, so I decided to share my exeprience with Multimaster. and also wondering if finally got any futher with her claim.

I actually live in Republic of Ireland, we purchased a suit of fabric furniture in Reids (2 + 3 seaters) and took out Multimaster insurance in May 2004.

In May 2005, my husband left his notebook and permanent marker on the sofa, which tipped over and left a huge black stain on the arm of the 3 seater.
So, I submitted a claim to Multimaster.
They sent me back a cleaning kit for leather. I called them back and asked if they are expecting me to clean the fabric with leather kit.
They said that on their systems the furniture insured is coming up as leather, and that I had to go back to the retailer and get them to submit correct details for the furnutire. That took a couple of months. After numerous calls, they finally recieved it and said they will send out someone to have a look and see if the stain could be eliminated.

After a month, a few failed visit, a guy finallyshowed up, said nothing can be done to this, and promised to file and send report to Multimaster.
As you guessed Multimaster never received the report. After another couple of months of calling the guy who inspected the furniture and who said the sent the report to the Multimaster several times and Multimaster denying receiving it, Mulstimaster decided to empoy another inspector.
Another few months and the second guy finally appeared on out door step. This one even took a sample of a fabric from the bottom of the sofa.
Again, problems with report receipt on Multimaster side. After they finally received it, they took another 28 days to review the claim. Then they said they will try to contact the producer of the furniture to see if the arm could be replaced. The response was that the furniture is discountinued and the arm could not be replaced. They had to review the case agian for another 28 days. Then they requested me to provide a proof of purchase and value of furniture and the policy, as Reid's could not locate this information. we did.

So, in October 2006, after 18 months, they sent me a cheque for £900 pounds which only covered half of the price of the furniture and told me I could keep the furniture.

It took me a while to get back to them, but I sent the cheque back early 2007 and said that I do not want to keep the furniture, but would like the whole suit to be replaced according to the terms of the contract.
After another few months and more phone calls, they sent me a letter, saying I could go and choose a new suit of furniture from Reid Furniture, send them the specs and they would place and order for me. Which I did. After a month they sent me another letter asking for a cheque to cover the difference between the original price and the purchase price. I did. The delivery time on the furniture was 16-18 weeks, i sent the cheque in June 2007, so was expecting the furniture to be arriving in October.
I phoned in September and was told that Multimaster has been bought over by another company, my order has never been placed and they will review the case and get back to me. The security has also changed and they couldn't talk to me without my husband's authorisation, as his name was on the policy. After few more converstaions they said they will need to check if the cheque Multimaster sent me in 2006, has actually not been cashed and I will recieve aphone call in a few weeks.
After 2 weeks, I called them myself and heard recoded message on the phone "our offices are currently closed. please call back during normal business hours 9:30-5, Monday to Firday" (I was calling them Friday morning). So, I kept calling and getting the same message for another week, untill I decided to try and choose different option on the phone line (Reid's customer instead of Multimaster customer). When i got through to customer services representative, she told me that the department looking after my claim is on training and that's why their phone lines are closed. I couldn't beilive it. So, said she will pass the message on and she will pass on my suggestion on changing the recoded message to notify cusomers that the services are temporarily unavailble and when they going to be resumed.

Sorry for long message, but I guess I was trying to make a point that Multimaster seems to be employing strategy of dragging it as long as possible with every step of the claim in the hopes that customer would get fed up and drop the claim.
What I am wondering about is weather they can be sued for not dealing with claims in more effecient manner and less time

[GoldyR]

Firstly, OMG!! What I nightmare for both of you, I would be tearing my hair out by now! Lesson 1....never ever buy insurance offered by the store for any kind of product, inc sofa's & electrical goods etc...But i'm sure you don't need me to tell you this!

Have either of you approached your Home insurance companies? If you have Accidental Damage cover on your Contents, they will replace the dmg'd item for you. Admittedly there will be a policy excess, & they will only replace the dmg'd item plus a maximum contribution of 50% towards the undmg'd items, but that has to be better than all this.

Why don't either of you approach Watchdog? I am sure they would be very interested in this appalling situation, this is far worse than the usual delays you see in claim situations. Also, to sell insurance of any kind they must be regulated, therefore I am sure the Financial Ombudsman Service would be happy to review your complaint, that's assuming you have been through their coomplaints procedures internally. If it were me, I would be going into the store & demanding a new suite now - & i wouldn't leave until I got one. After all, £150 for an Accidental Dmg policy is pretty extortionate anyway, my whole Buildings & Contents policy including Accidental Damage doesn't cost much more than that!!

[bluea]

Hi

I am actually sitting at home now waiting for someone from MultiMaster to come and repair my sofa and I can totally relate to these stories, so I'll share mine.

At the beginning of March I spilt some flea drops on the sofa and it burnt the leather. We called Multi Master and they came round quite quickly and took photos, etc. They said it would take 3 hours to fix and must be done in the morning as they needed natural light. They said we should hear from them within 10 days. We didn't! My partner called them and they said they were waiting for the assessor to answer some questions. We waited another 10 days and called again. This time we were told that they didn't know if the problem was with the leather or the flea drops. If it was the leather, we weren't covered. We stewed about this for a while and my partner, still not hearing anything back from them, called and asked to speak to a manager, who said we were covered either way and signed the claim off straight away and told us to call back and let them know when we wanteded someone to come round and repair it.

My partner called the next day and was told that it hadn't been cleared for a technician to come round. He kicked off and eventually got told someone would come today between 8 and 6. I have taken a day's leave for this. I got a call from the repairer at 9am saying he would be round between 2 and 6 (funnily enough it was the same person who took the photos). I said then that he had originnaly said it must be done in the morning and that it would take 3 hours, but he went very vague.

So, I am sitting here wondering if he'll turn up at all!

[Chesterexpress]

Originally Posted by bluea

he would be round between 2 and 6 (funnily enough it was the same person who took the photos). I said then that he had originnaly said it must be done in the morning and that it would take 3 hours, but he went very vague.

It is lighter much later at this time of year, therefore by doing it now they will still have daylight, whereas In March it would be dark by 18:00hrs.

[moneydragon]

I too purchased a policy through Multimaster for my leather suite at the cost of £189.

The zip broke and they got out of it by saying I had done it accidently and refused to honour it. I argued that I was covered for accidental damage but they still wangled out of it. This happened before the days of this great site and they would of not got away with it now.

Multimaster - not worth the paper it's written on